I am covered in skin, no one gets to come in

This blog post by Jack Linden is an idea a long time coming; does it have a downside? Sure; likely there will be price hikes to cover the continual upgrades to newer better server technologies. And Reacher Rau states the policy as read is "Disappointedly ambiguous"; and so it is.

Some of the better questions tossed Jack's way:

* Will there be way to tell what class a [region] is currently on?
* Will there be info on what hardware belongs to what class?
* Will private sim owners be able to request a temp higher class to handle an event?
(all from TechWolf Lupindo)

* What is the timeframe for this change?
* How will we know when our class 4s have moved to class 5?
* Will the sim numbers still be an indicator?
(all from Amethyst Rosencrans)

These aren't bad questions. Though to be fair, Jack did step back in with a few answers:

There are no changes to fees, even for grandfathered class 4 owners who will be moving to class 5s. They will simply end up with grandfathered class 5s instead. So if you own an island and are paying x per month, you will remain paying x.

Although we don't generally display the Class designation, it is visible in a couple of places (such as the Landstore for example). As we move to a classless model then it will no longer be shown. We will, however, make clear what the base server is so that everyone understands the minimum they can expect (essentially Class 5 as it is now).

And the rest is the usual tempest in the teapot of folks who really haven't been thinking about pricing issues at all, before now, suddenly standing up and insisting that they get a discount, too--when it's never been about certain 'discounted' fees; owners of class 4 sims (and, as stated, some class 5 sims) pay two hundred, over three hundred, because of when they bought those sims, not what class those sims are. What the Lindens are saying--and for once, I agree with them--is that it's a better idea in the long run to slowly equalize everyone to a base standard because it creates more grid stability.

And isn't that part of what we want on the grid, anyway?

In other news, I downloaded the "mid-range" Snowglobe version to try out--not the raw and bleeding data-in-the-wilderness version, and not the this-is-stable-enough version of October past, but the we-just-updated-this "RC" version of November 10th.

Up side (and for me, it's a BIG upside): LL has scarfed off with Emerald's "Worn Items" tab. Yay!

Down side (and same deal, which is why I'll be gutting the RC and reinstalling October's version later): The November 10th build is CRASHTASTIC. I'm not kidding. Crashed twice inexplicably in an hour; stopped responding once in the middle and had to hard-close the program. Me not like closing programs using the Task Manager; me not run under Snowglobe November 10th build.

Which is tragic; I really wanted to keep that "Worn Items" tab whether I'm using Snowglobe or Emerald. Bah.